Selective corticostriatal dysfunction in schizophrenia: examination of motor and cognitive skill learning.

It has been suggested that patients with schizophrenia have corticostriatal circuit dysfunction (Carlsson & Carlsson, 1990). Skill learning is thought to rely on corticostriatal circuitry and different types of skill learning may be related to separable corticostriatal loops (Grafton, Hazeltine, & Ivry, 1995; Poldrack, Prabhakaran, Seger, & Gabrieli, 1999). The authors examined motor (Serial Reaction Time task, SRT) and cognitive (Probabilistic Classification task, PCT) skill learning in patients with schizophrenia and normal controls. Development of automaticity was examined, using a dual task paradigm, across three training sessions. Patients with schizophrenia were impaired at learning on the PCT compared to controls. Performance gains of controls occurred within the first session, whereas patients only improved gradually and never reached the performance level of controls. In contrast, patients were not impaired at learning on the SRT relative to controls, suggesting that patients with schizophrenia may have dysfunction in a specific corticostriatal subcircuit.

[1]  D. Howard,et al.  Implicit learning of visuospatial sequences in schizophrenia. , 2003, Neuropsychology.

[2]  A Carlsson,et al.  Schizophrenia: a subcortical neurotransmitter imbalance syndrome? , 1990, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[3]  M S Mega,et al.  Frontal-subcortical circuits and neuropsychiatric disorders. , 1994, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[4]  L. J. Chapman,et al.  The measurement of differential deficit. , 1978, Journal of psychiatric research.

[5]  S. Woods,et al.  Chlorpromazine equivalent doses for the newer atypical antipsychotics. , 2003, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[6]  M. Gluck,et al.  Interactive memory systems in the human brain , 2001, Nature.

[7]  M S Buchsbaum,et al.  The frontal lobes, basal ganglia, and temporal lobes as sites for schizophrenia. , 1990, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[8]  D. Braff,et al.  Schizophrenia patients demonstrate a dissociation on declarative and non-declarative memory tests , 2000, Schizophrenia Research.

[9]  L J Chapman,et al.  Commentary on two articles concerning generalized and specific cognitive deficits. , 2001, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[10]  A. Antal,et al.  Schizophrenics know more than they can tell: probabilistic classification learning in schizophrenia , 2000, Psychological Medicine.

[11]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  Information Processing and Cognition: The Loyola Symposium , 1976 .

[12]  M. Buchsbaum.  Frontal lobes, basal ganglia, temporal lobes--three sites for schizophrenia? , 1990, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[13]  D. Shakow,et al.  Learning capacity in schizophrenia; with special reference to the concept of deterioration. , 1949, The American journal of psychiatry.

[14]  T. Goldberg,et al.  Assessment of procedural learning and problem solving in schizophrenic patients by Tower of Hanoi type tasks. , 1990, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[15]  K. Jellinger,et al.  Recent developments in the pathology of Parkinson's disease. , 2002, Journal of neural transmission. Supplementum.

[16]  P. Strick,et al.  Basal Ganglia Output and Cognition: Evidence from Anatomical, Behavioral, and Clinical Studies , 2000, Brain and Cognition.

[17]  E. Stip,et al.  Differential Effects of D2- and D4-Blocking Neuroleptics on the Procedural Learning of Schizophrenic Patients , 1996, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.

[18]  H. Cotton.  The Journal of Mental Science , 1907 .

[19]  N. Swindale,et al.  Diffusion tensor fiber tracking shows distinct corticostriatal circuits in humans , 2004, Annals of neurology.

[20]  Eric Granholm,et al.  Preliminary associations between motor procedural learning, basal ganglia T2 relaxation times, and tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia , 1993, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

[21]  C. Junqué,et al.  Basal ganglia N-acetylaspartate correlates with the performance in the procedural task ‘Tower of Hanoi’ of neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients , 2003, Neuroscience Letters.

[22]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Memory in schizophrenia: What is impaired and what is preserved? , 1993, Neuropsychologia.

[23]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[24]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Functional anatomy of human procedural learning determined with regional cerebral blood flow and PET , 1992, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[25]  J. Schröder,et al.  Memory deficits in subsyndromes of chronic schizophrenia , 1996, Schizophrenia Research.

[26]  Peder J. Johnson,et al.  Assessing implicit learning with indirect tests: Determining what is learned about sequence structure. , 1994 .

[27]  M. Gluck,et al.  Cortico-striatal contributions to feedback-based learning: converging data from neuroimaging and neuropsychology. , 2004, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  M. Nissen,et al.  Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures , 1987, Cognitive Psychology.

[29]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention and cognitive control. , 1975 .

[30]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Developmental Processes in Schizophrenic Disorders: longitudinal studies of vulnerability and stress. , 1992, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[31]  T. Goldberg,et al.  Learning and memory in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia , 1993, Psychological Medicine.

[32]  T. Robbins,et al.  The case of frontostriatal dysfunction in schizophrenia. , 1990, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[33]  Jennifer A. Mangels,et al.  A Neostriatal Habit Learning System in Humans , 1996, Science.

[34]  S. Deutsch,et al.  Impaired motor skill learning in schizophrenia: implications for corticostriatal dysfunction , 1996, Biological Psychiatry.

[35]  A. Reber,et al.  The Assessment of Cognitive Procedural Learning in Amnesia: Why the Tower of Hanoi Has Fallen Down , 2001, Brain and Cognition.

[36]  V. Bowden,et al.  The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences , 1992 .

[37]  A. Reber,et al.  The dual-task SRT procedure: Fine-tuning the timing , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[38]  M. First,et al.  Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis II personality disorders : SCID-II , 1997 .

[39]  E. Stip,et al.  Mild procedural learning disturbances in neuroleptic-naive patients with schizophrenia. , 2003, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[40]  Strategies for resolving the heterogeneity of schizophrenics and their relatives using cognitive measures. , 1989, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[41]  Scott T. Grafton,et al.  Functional Mapping of Sequence Learning in Normal Humans , 1995, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[42]  M. Green,et al.  Declarative and procedural learning in schizophrenia: a test of the integrity of divergent memory systems. , 1997, Cognitive neuropsychiatry.

[43]  Carol A. Seger,et al.  Striatal activation during acquisition of a cognitive skill. , 1999, Neuropsychology.

[44]  Anna Juhász,et al.  Habit learning and the genetics of the dopamine D3 receptor: evidence from patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. , 2005, Behavioral Neuroscience.

[45]  Jane S. Paulsen,et al.  Dissociations within nondeclarative memory in Huntington's disease. , 1996 .

[46]  G. E. Alexander,et al.  Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. , 1986, Annual review of neuroscience.

[47]  E. Granholm,et al.  Dual-task performance operating characteristics, resource limitations, and automatic processing in schizophrenia. , 1996 .

[48]  Tyrone D. Cannon,et al.  The inheritance of intermediate phenotypes for schizophrenia , 2005, Current opinion in psychiatry.

[49]  J. Malley,et al.  Habit and skill learning in schizophrenia: evidence of normal striatal processing with abnormal cortical input. , 2002, Learning & memory.

[50]  Jennifer A. Mangels,et al.  Typical and atypical antipsychotic medications differentially affect two nondeclarative memory tasks in schizophrenic patients: a double dissociation , 2003, Schizophrenia Research.

[51]  M. Gluck,et al.  Probabilistic classification learning in amnesia. , 1994, Learning & memory.

[52]  R. Liberman,et al.  Maintenance treatment of schizophrenia with risperidone or haloperidol: 2-year outcomes. , 2003, The American journal of psychiatry.

[53]  M. Gluck,et al.  Human midbrain sensitivity to cognitive feedback and uncertainty during classification learning. , 2004, Journal of neurophysiology.

[54]  Hongtu Zhu,et al.  Perceptual-motor skill learning in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome Evidence for multiple procedural learning and memory systems , 2005, Neuropsychologia.

[55]  L. J. Chapman,et al.  Task difficulty and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. , 1995, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[56]  Demonstrating specific cognitive deficits: a psychometric perspective. , 2001 .

[57]  Russell A Poldrack,et al.  Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[58]  E. Stip,et al.  Procedural learning in schizophrenia: further consideration on the deleterious effect of neuroleptics. , 2000, Brain and cognition.

[59]  E. Stip,et al.  Comparison between olanzapine and haloperidol on procedural learning and the relationship with striatal D2 receptor occupancy in schizophrenia. , 2004, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[60]  K. Kleist.  Schizophrenic symptoms and cerebral pathology. , 1960, The Journal of mental science.

[61]  Sabrina M. Tom,et al.  The Neural Correlates of Motor Skill Automaticity , 2005, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[62]  T. Robbins,et al.  Frontal-striatal cognitive deficits in patients with chronic schizophrenia. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[63]  C. Frith,et al.  The positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia reflect impairments in the perception and initiation of action , 1987, Psychological Medicine.

[64]  Neil Woodward,et al.  Procedural learning in schizophrenia after 6 months of double-blind treatment with olanzapine, risperidone, and haloperidol , 2003, Psychopharmacology.

[65]  Thomas Kolter,et al.  Implicit and explicit learning in schizophrenics treated with olanzapine and with classic neuroleptics , 2002, Psychopharmacology.